Why Vaccinate?

Introduction

As a parent, you make informed choices to protect your child's health and safety every day. You research the best child care options for your family, make sure the car seat is properly installed, and ask that visitors wash their hands before holding your newborn. Your choice to immunize is no different. Making an informed choice about immunization is critical to safeguarding your child’s health.

Parents like you choose vaccination for a variety of reasons:

Because you can't protect your child from every harm that comes their way. Immunization gives you the power to prevent unnecessary illness and suffering for your child.

Because vaccinating protects your loved ones and your community from disease.

Because doctors and scientific experts agree that vaccination is a safe and effective way to protect children from serious illnesses.

Because vaccinating your family extends beyond your community to help eliminate disease worldwide.

Because the facts speak for themselves!

Only a very small percentage of parents choose not to vaccinate their children. This decision carries serious health consequences for their children and the community. While all parents want what’s best for their kids, the choice to delay or refuse vaccination is not without risk.

Risks of not vaccinating include:

Increased risk for infectious disease - If your child is exposed to a disease, immunization can save your child from severe complications or even death. For example, measles can cause pneumonia, swelling of the brain, or death -- even in healthy children. Research shows that children who are not immunized are 6 times more likely to get pertussis (whooping cough) and 22 times more likely to get measles than their immunized peers.

The diseases we vaccinate against are still circulating in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. These diseases can strike at any time, and there is no way to know how an illness will affect your child.

Exclusion from school or child-care - If there are cases of a vaccine-preventable disease, your child may be excluded from school or child care. Even one case of measles is enough to cause concern in a community. Measles is so contagious that if one person is infected, 90% of people who come in contact with that person and are not immune will also become infected.

Limits to travel - Some vaccines are required for travel and some are recommended for areas where vaccine-preventable diseases are common.